1 » Former Florida Gators defensive end Jarvis Moss, who spent the conclusion of the 2010 season with the Oakland Raiders after being released by the Denver Broncos in Nov., agreed to a one-year, $1.25 million deal with his new club on Tuesday to remain in Oakland for the 2011 season. Moss, who has only registered 32 tackles, 4.5 sacks and one forced fumble in his four-year NFL career, will be used as an end with the Raiders after being moved back-and-forth between end and linebacker in various defensive schemes with the Broncos. The former No. 17 overall pick hopes to start from scratch and pick things up in Oakland.

2 » Recounting when he and the team learned that head coach Will Muschamp tabbed Charlie Weis as the team’s offensive coordinator, redshirt senior wide receiver Deonte Thompson told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that it came as a shock to everyone. “We were at the Outback Bowl,” he said, “and one of the receivers came in and said, ‘We’ve got Charlie!’ We were like, ‘We ain’t got no Charlie Weis.’ Then it came across the TV, and we were like, ‘Oh, man, Coach Champ is making moves already.’ Everybody was on board, and it gave us a sense of energy.” Thompson, who stated multiple times during the 2011 SEC Media Days that Weis’s goal is to keep it the offense “simple” and “fast” so everyone can pick it up quickly, believes 2011 will finally be his breakout season. “I think it’s going to happen this year,” he said. “I think it’s a matter of getting the confidence going and just getting the quarterback’s confidence going and the whole offense, and everything should fall into place.”

If you notice everybody keeps talking about confidence. I think the whole team was just rattled by the square pegs being rammed into the round holes. This includes the receivers. Think about it, your quarterback is more focused on not getting killed than playing the game. How much faith does that give you as a receiver that he isn’t leading you right into getting blown up by a safety that you can’t see. I mean some of those balls were just dropped especially on curl routes and the like where the receivers are not at as much of a risk to get blasted like a crossing route. Only time will tell but I think Brantley, Thompson, and all the rest of the receivers are going to look a lot better this year.

Also, something that has bugged me but no one else seems to notice is that Brantley was way way way more effective on the play action plays from under center last year. He didn’t complete every single pass in those sets but he sure looked like a different QB during those plays. I think most people were so disgusted by the offense that they missed that faint glimmer of hope.

play action under center? Yeah, all three times we ran that. I just hope for Temple’s sake that Addazio has relies fully on Scot Loeffler (OC) to run the offense. Who knows how successful Loeffler will be but he simply can’t be any worse than Addz.

I think Deonte Thompson’s year will be the decided mainly by the play of John Brantley. If Brantley has improved confidence and delivers the ball to Thompson on time, he will make plays. Hopefully Brantley has improved like we are all hearing. The UF camp are saying that Brantley was throwing darts to the wrs all spring long, and that is a good sign. If JB struggles early, we need to replace him soon with the young more mobile and playmaking qbs in Murphy and Driskell. Replacing him early will give us a chance to groom our qbs before the conference games start. Because I really don’t want to experience what I did last year in watching Brantley screw up all season long. I’m tired of hearing all the excuses of JB being in a bad offense last year. Its time for him to show and prove. It was really sad watching the Gators on offense with him under center last year..

Yeah, but they were also saying Brantley was throwing darts last year as well. We all saw how that season of throwing “darts” turned out. The kid is a practice stud. As long as he doesn’t have to worry about getting smashed he’s ok. Put him in a real game where the D isn’t going to take it easy and he folds. I know that you need to have a solid O in front of the QB for him to be effective, but we also need a QB with some toughness and balls when it breaks down. Brantley has neither. All he has is his daddy’s last name. Yes, I would like to see him succeed, but I just don’ think he has it in him.

Best of luck this year Deonte, we are all hoping this year is better than last. I would say that it has “happened” during your stay here in G’ville considering the first 2 years you were here you were 26-2 with a NC. Lets go get another! Go Gators!

Just a quick thing, as bad as we were last year, we were just a couple of plays away from having double digit wins (Mississippi St. & LSU). These guys have 1 more year of experience and our D-Line will be better. JB is also in an offense more to his liking. I’m thinking a 10-3 record will be the result of WM’s first season as HBC. Losses to Bama, LSU (mostly because it’s at Death Valley) & South Carolina. We will be back everybody. GO GATORS!

Mostly agree with you Aaaron. The fake punt against LSU still rankles me. It’s rare that a play gets me that hot. Miss St. however was another story. They threw 9 times all night long and we still couldn’t stop the run. The game was far more lopsided than the time expiring field goal attempt suggested. It was just ugly. Not that Miss St. was stellar, we were just atrocious.

I’m going to predict UGA gets us this year in addition to the teams you mention. They have a lot of returning guys and this game will be to them like we were to FSU last year. Pre-bowl I’m going with 8-4.

I wish him the best this season for all our sake’s, but whatever offense we run… hands are hands, I hope he got those back this off-season because that is his biggest issue. He even dropped the ball in the Spring O&B on a wide open J.Brantley pass, please correct me if I’m wrong.

No amount of scheming by the OC will ever fix bad technique and DT likes to body catch, a big no-no at any level.

I agree with a kicker last year we win 10 games. We also had jj and a black in the secondary. Dt honestly should not even start, but the staff liked to play upperclassmen. Id put hines hammond and dunbar ahead of him, not to mention patton and clark. He has had all the chances to be our go to guy….he just drops them all.

Frankie Hammonds should be a starter this year. Quietly, he was our best wr last season. He was very explosive after the catch and displayed very good hands. Would also like to see Dunbar and Debose more involved in the offense this season. Really all of our wrs should improve in a Charlie Weis offense. With our talent on both sides of the ball and a great coaching staff, I’m predicting a 10-3 or perhaps a surprise 11-2 season. Go Gators

“The 42 catches that you’ve had in your career — including a sensational catch in the corner of the Superdome end zone on Jan. 1 — pale in comparison to the two you dropped against Charleston Southern.

“I just happened to drop a ball in a game, and they throw me in there (as) a guy who drops balls,” Thompson said Tuesday. “I really don’t drop balls.”

Behind the ultra-secret curtains that keep fans and media members from watching guys stretch, the word is Thompson is catching everything in sight. The truth is, he caught all but the first two passes that went his way last year.”

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